Justek
by River Eagle
Summary: What would happen if Kal El grew up in the world of the Stargate, and was actually involved with the programme on Earth since the beginning? DISCONTINUED
1. Prologue

_What if Kal El had grown up differently, and had arrived on Earth in the world of the Stargate Program?_

 _ **PROLOGUE**_

 _May 1997_

"How many languages do you speak?"

Clark Justin Kent looked up from the short translation assignment he was required to do as part of his interview and nervously pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He was surprised at the question. It shouldn't've surprised him though; the position he was hoping to get was one in linguistics and translation working out of Cheyenne Mountain. "Uh… 35."

Doctor Gary Meyers whistled and looked back down at his notes. "That many?" Meyers had been part of the original team of scientists that had worked under Doctor Langford two years before and was the only one of that team that had remained at Stargate Command under General Hammond. He was the man that led the team of scientists and linguists under Doctor Jackson's direction working in the mountain and was currently interviewing potential employees for the program.

"Y-yes s-sir," Clark stammered.

"And you prefer Justin?"

"Jus, actually."

Meyers looked up again from his notes to see Jus lay the pen down. "What have you been doing since you finished university?"

"I was a freelance journalist. I have made my way around the world in the past 6 years, writing pieces for local newspapers while I've been in different areas."

"So why didn't you try apply for a full time journalist position? From your CV, it looks like you majored in journalism and linguistics."

"I tried sir. _T-the D-Daily Planet_ wasn't hiring, and I haven't written the high quality articles to get my foot in the door there."

Meyers ran his hand over the grey stubble that was growing over his chin. "So what appeals to you about working for NORAD?"

Jus closed his cyan eyes and thought about his answer for a moment. "Sir, this opportunity to work with NORAD would be an honour. There are not many linguist positions out there, sir, that deal just with translation work. I am not very good at establishing relationships that are required for being a translator. This job at NORAD, however, presents a challenge to me and I relish the opportunities that will present themselves here."

The head scientist heading the research labs took Jus' translation work off the kid and looked it over. His eyebrows lifted toward his hairline. "You said you speak 35 languages? How many of those languages do you read?"

"I probably read more languages that I speak."

"For example?"

"Anglo Saxon, Hieroglyphics, Babylonian, Ancient Greek and Latin. I could go on."

"Did you study world history at some point?"

"I h-have an eidetic me-memory, sir. If it's in the hi-history books, then I pro-probably know the details. It's the same wi-with la-languages."

Again, Meyers's jaw dropped. The man hadn't been expecting to find a young man like Jus applying for a position on his translation team. If the kid was _half_ as good as what his referees had said, then Stargate Command will have gained a valuable employee. It hadn't hurt that the background check had come back clean either – the next best for the job had a few minor traffic incidences. "How on earth do you know Doctor Langford?"

Jus smiled slightly as he thought about his 'aunt' Catherine. "I interned with her over the summers of '89 and '90."

 **SGC SGC SGC**

Catherine Langford was expecting a phone call from Jus at her Denver home. Instead, he'd appeared at her door with a bouquet of flowers. What had made the bouquet so special, the woman knew, was that the flowers were picked especially for her by her adoptive nephew.

Said nephew lifted the cup of coffee to his lips and drank. Pulling back, he gave her a shy smile and asked, "Aunt Catherine, are there any tips you can give me for working with Doctor Meyers? He said he worked under you two years ago when you were working on the Stargate Program."

The pair of them were sitting comfortably in her sitting room. She smiled as she recalled the man. "He can get caught up in his work sometimes. But he's fair to the people around him and those that are working for him."

"That's always good to know." Jus frowned slightly as he thought over his next question. "What about Doctor Jackson?" The young linguist knew that his aunt believed Doctor Daniel Jackson had died during the first mission through the stargate. But he also knew that the information wasn't entirely correct – actually, the whole story was fabricated by Colonel Jack O'Neill on the team's return through the 'gate.

Catherine shakily placed her cup down. "What about Daniel? You know that he died during the mission to Abydos."

Jus shook his head slightly. "You know as well as I do that the gate goes other places and that there was a good chance Doctor Jackson survived the mission to Abydos."

"But we tried dialling the gate again after the team got back. It didn't let us send things through."

"Which meant the gate was buried, not destroyed. If the gate was destroyed, it wouldn't have connected." The young man gave his aunt a tender smile. Catherine accepted the smile and raised an eyebrow. Jus' grin grew as he picked up the cue of going into further detail on how Daniel Jackson and Colonel Jack O'Neill had outwitted General West. And how the SGC realised that the stargate could go more places than just to Abydos.


	2. Part 1

_**PART ONE**_

 _March, 1998_

 _Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado_

Justin Kent paused outside Doctor Jackson's office and glanced down at the translations in his hand. The past year had been hectic – more hectic than he thought it would be. Yet the job had come with rewards as well. He smiled as he thought about how Aunt Catherine had been reunited with Ernest Littlefield, how surprised Daniel had been when he (Jus) had answered Catherine's door, how he'd found a sister in Cassandra… He shook himself out of his musings and raised his hand to knock before stopping.

Through the semi-closed door, the linguist could hear the archaeologist talking to someone. Probably the only other member of SG-1 that was currently on base – Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter were currently missing in action. Knocking softly on the door, the 27-year-old heard Daniel call for him to enter.

The office was something that Jus had come to expect from the archaeologist – there was things strewn everywhere. Bookshelves lined the walls, packed with many books – a number of those were first editions – and objects Daniel had gathered through his trips through the 'gate with his team. There were papers everywhere and partial translations taking up the remainder wall space. On the desk that faced the doorway, was Daniel's desktop, and a photo frame. Jus couldn't see what was in the frame, but guessed it would hold a picture of the archaeologist's wife.

Teal'c – the brooding Jaffa – turned toward the young man as he entered. Daniel looked over toward the door and stopped his rant. Jus cleared his throat and shifted under the intense gaze of both members of SG-1.

"I finished that translation you wanted."

Daniel blinked and looked around the room. "Oh yes! Thank you. Just put it on my desk." The man returned his attention to Teal'c. "They could be anywhere Teal'c. Has this sort of thing happened before?"

Jus was almost at the door when Daniel asked the question. He frowned and opened his mouth to say something then snapped it closed again. The technicians were still working on the 'gate to get it up and running again and he'd only heard of one instance where the stargate wormhole had 'jumped tracks' so to speak. He left the office quietly and looked down at the ring with its blue meteorite stone he wore on his right middle finger. In an instant, the young man knew what to do – what his parents had wanted for him to do all along when they sent him away from the destruction of Krypton. And he couldn't help but smile slightly to himself as he thought about the 'gift' his aunt Catherine had given him with the help of his adoptive mother.

He looked down at the ring he wore again as he thought over what his next course of action would be. Because, to be fair, he was pretty sure of where Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter were.

 **SGC SGC SGC**

Daniel was in the control room when they got the 'gate working again. It had been nearly eight hours since he and Teal'c were tossed out of the wormhole before it shut down. Eight hours of agonising over where Carter and O'Neill were; of wondering how badly hurt they were. He had come up with the plausible suggestion that the two Air Force officers had been sent to any of the worlds along the route they would have taken from the last planet they were on and Earth.

When Daniel first approached General George Hammond with the idea that a wormhole connecting two stargates could 'jump' destinations if one gate (or both gates) malfunctioned in efforts to save people traveling within the wormhole itself, the General was willing to try and send out teams to find his two leading officers. There were no shortage of volunteers. The first of the teams volunteering for search and rescue were waiting in the disembarkation room when an incoming wormhole was established.

"Closing the iris," Sergeant Walter Davis called out. "Receiving IDC…" It took a few seconds for the computer to run the identity code through its databases before the sergeant looked up at the general in shock. "It's SG-1."

General Hammond stepped up beside the sergeant. "Open the iris." The sergeant did as he was commanded and opened the iris.

The radio sparked to life with Captain Carter's voice. "Sir, this is Carter. We're going to need some help getting back. Colonel O'Neill's been injured badly – I can't support him through the 'gate without aggravating his injuries more."

"Where are you, Captain?" Hammond asked over the comm.

"I'm not sure. I'll send you through the gate address."

Within moments, a small slip of paper came out of the wormhole and landed on the embarkation ramp before the 'gate shut itself off. It didn't take the SGC all that long to get organized and dial out to the address that Carter had sent through the 'gate.

 **SGC SGC SGC**

General Hammond was waiting at the base of the ramp as SG-5 returned with Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter. He was curious to find out what had happened between when Daniel and Teal'c had last reported them to be and now, once the team had brought them back to Earth and SG Command. Major Hunter was the first to step through the open worm hole, followed closely by the two lieutenants on his team carrying a stretcher between them with Colonel O'Neill. Then was the remaining member of SG-5 with Captain Carter bringing up the rear.

Hammond looked his second-in-command over and barked out, "Get him to the infirmary." He turned his attention to Carter. "Captain?"

"I'm okay. Just a little bit cold. The colonel took the most injuries."

"How did you end up on a planet that's not on our databanks, and not in between where we were and here?" Daniel asked. "I figured you guys jumped gates when the stargate shut off behind Teal'c and me."

Carter wrapped her arms around herself. "Could I possibly go get warmed up before I explain everything?"

Hammond gave her a brief nod and told her to get checked out in the medbay before joining him and the rest of SG-1 in the briefing room in an hour and a half. Carter saluted and made her way through the base to carry out Hammond's orders. It wasn't long before she made her way back to Level 22 and the briefing room, where Daniel, Teal'c and Hammond were waiting for her.

Taking a seat opposite Daniel and Teal'c, Carter swallowed and asked, "What would you like to know sir?"

"What happened? We got an incoming wormhole from the last mission SG-1 was on, your IDC and then only Daniel and Teal'c coming through before it shut off."

"Colonel O'Neill and I were right behind Daniel and Teal'c stepping through the 'gate on the other side. We didn't realise that there was anything wrong until we were flung from the 'gate on an ice world. I got a few minor injuries while the colonel got a broken leg and a number of internal injuries that I couldn't assess on my own. At first, we didn't even realise that Daniel and Teal'c weren't with us while we were assessing our injuries and taking note of where we were. It was only then that we found that we were on our own and we didn't have easy access to the DHD." Carter took a deep breath and looked around at the faces of her teammates and friends. "We eventually found the DHD buried in ice and that we were in a cavern of some sort. That helped with keeping us warmer, but it was still below zero.

"Before I started working on freeing the top of the DHD, I reassessed the Colonel's condition and decided that the bone in his leg needed to be set before anything else got done. Then I got started on trying to get us out and home. I don't know how long it took me to free the DHD, but after a lot of effort, we managed to get the top of it cleared of ice. I found the only symbol that I didn't recognise, and figured that that would be the point of origin. So I tried dialling home. It didn't connect."

Daniel looked up from his file from the mission. "That would be because our gate was under repair. The blast from the death glider that hit the stargate on the other side sent a shock wave through to our own 'gate and shorted it out."

"That's what I had hoped when you and Teal'c weren't with us on the ice world. There was one of three options: you ended up here, you ended up on another world like us, or you were killed on route. We hoped for the first, but we did have to consider all options."

Hammond looked around the group and gave a tight smile. "We can be glad that the worst option did not happen. Please continue, Captain Carter."

Carter took in a deep breath and continued on with her story. "I tried dialling out a second time. Again, it didn't connect and I wasn't sure why. I thought about digging further through the ice to have a look at the control panel of the DHD to see if there were any burnt out crystals when Colonel O'Neill and I were joined by another… person."

"Hostile?" Hammond asked.

"No. He carried no weapons and was definitely not dressed as a Goa'uld – at least what we've come to expect from a Goa'uld."

"What was this person like?" Teal'c asked.

Carter turned her attention to the Jaffa. "He wore a dark blue body suit with a strange 's' symbol on his chest. I'll draw it for you." She quickly looked around her and found a piece of notepad and a pen. It took her all of 30 seconds to draw the slightly odd shaped pentagon with the 's' in the middle. Handing it to Hammond, Carter waited until it was passed to Daniel and then Teal'c. "It was in red."

"Do either of you recognise that?" Hammond asked. Daniel shook his head.

Teal'c placed the drawing down. "This is the symbol of the house of 'El', one of the ruling houses of the planet Krypton. The planet and its people were destroyed 100 years ago when the system was attacked by one of the system lords. The belief was that none from the system survived."

"So this… person that Sam and Jack met could possibly be from this planet?" Daniel asked.

"It is possible, but highly unlikely," Teal'c refuted.

Hammond pursed his lips before he returned his attention to Carter. "What happened after this person arrived?"

"He checked us over, as if he had some medical training. It was strange. He didn't really say much. I did ask where we were, and he mentioned we were on Midarin. The next thing that shocked me is that he dialled the gate and was able to establish a wormhole. He moved to Colonel O'Neill's side after collecting our gear and helped the Colonel to stand and enter the gate. I followed after them and we came out on what seemed to be a deserted planet. The man gently placed the colonel down by the DHD and asked – more like mimed – for a pen and a piece of paper. I found some in my supplies and handed them over to him. He wrote down the address of the planet we were on and it seemed like he was really thinking about what he wanted to say before he said 'wait two hours'."

"Do you think he spoke a lot of English?" Hammond asked.

"If he did, he gave a good impression of being someone who didn't know, sir," Carter returned. "After he made sure we were fine, he dialled the gate again and returned to where we'd been. It was an address I didn't recognise and I didn't think to write it down. We did as he said, and waited two hours before we tried dialling the gate again. That's when we got through here."

"Thank you, Captain. SG-1 is dismissed for the next few days while Colonel O'Neill is being assessed. Go home, each of you."

 **SGC SGC SGC**

Jus pushed his tinted glasses up on his nose further as he turn from his desk to the open door. Cassandra was in the doorway smiling with her hand raised and resting on the door frame. The man returned his sister's smile and invited her in. It had been two days since SG-1, or at least part of the team, had been rescued from the 'ice world'.

"Hi, kiddo. Did Doctor Fraiser bring you in today?"

"Yeah. I wanted to see how Jack was doing. And you had promised to watch me while Mom worked this afternoon. It's been ages since you've been around!"

"Hey!" Jus protested. "I came round on Wednesday." Cassandra's smile grew further and Jus realised that she was just teasing him. "Oh, you tease! Is that any way for you to treat your big brother?"

"Fair's fair," she returned with a giggle. "You do it all the time with me. How much longer will you be?"

"Almost finished, Cass. Let me tidy up." And just as he promised, Jus finished and tidied up his work area quickly. "Alright, let's go, kiddo." He grabbed his leather jacket and swung it around as he slid his arms into the sleeves. Pausing, he looked down at his adopted sister and gave her a smile. "Before we go, what's something you need to do?"

Cassandra thought for a moment before her eyes widened. "Helmet!" She ran back to his desk and to where he stored her helmet if he had it on him in the SGC. Jus grinned at her and shooed her out the door. He had an apologetic look on his face as he said farewell to the other person who shared his office space.

Mike shrugged and smiled. To him, it was good to see Jus acting a little like a child sometimes, and have a good relationship with the young orphaned girl brought back through the gate. It really reminded him of his own children. Most other times, Jus seemed a little too serious.

"How's the Colonel doing?" Jus asked once the two of them were in the garage and walking toward his motorcycle.

"He's doing okay. Mom says he's in a lot of pain, though he's complaining all the time." Cassandra worried her lower lip as she thought about her next question. Jus stopped as he realised that there was something on his sister's mind. "Was it true that Kal went and saved them?"

Jus grew serious and nodded. Out of all the people at the SGC, Cassandra was the only one who knew that there was more to Jus than what everybody assumed. Most just expected to see an ordinary guy; and yet with Cass, he found that he could share a little more of himself because of their shared experiences. "Yeah, Kal did. Did Captain Carter tell you that?"

"Well, not exactly. She just told me of the 's' man."

"How did you figure the 's' man was Kal?" Cassandra shrugged her shoulders. Jus leaned down and helped tighten her helmet. "You saw the suit that Aunt Catherine and my mom made me, right?"

"Yeah. I'm glad he went and got them." The 12-year-old gave Jus a smile and climbed on the back of his bike. Both of them, and all that knew his Kryptonian origins (which, to his knowledge, only consisted of the two of them and three others – Catherine, Jonathon and Martha), referred to that side of him as 'Kal'. He started up his bike and grew pensive. He hadn't even fully disclosed his whole past to his Tok'ra family, and he _had_ known them long before he'd even arrived on Earth.

Jus couldn't help but return the smile before it dropped. "You're in trouble for snooping through my stuff, Cass," he said seriously. He knew that what she had done would have been fine in her own culture, but it was highly frowned upon in American society. It was something he had struggled with a lot himself when he first came to the US as well. "It's a good thing I don't have secrets from you and you can keep them."

Cassandra had a guilty expression on her face. "Sorry. I'll ask next time."

"You'd better. Where do you want to go, kiddo?" Jus asked, trying to shake himself from his morbid thoughts.

"The park. I want to introduce you to some of my friends."

 **SGC SGC SGC**

Daniel walked into the infirmary where O'Neill was confined. Carter and Teal'c were also with him. Doctor Fraiser looked up as she changed out the saline solution that O'Neill was hooked up to. "How's he doing, Doctor?"

"I'm fine, Daniel," O'Neill growled from the bed. "Except for being hooked up to all of these machines when I could be out fishing."

"Not until we know you're healed from these injuries, Colonel. You received a bad fracture," Fraiser refuted.

Daniel smiled at O'Neill's grimace. He then looked around. "Where's Cassandra? I thought she came in with you today."

"She did, Doctor Jackson. She's off with Jus this afternoon."

"The linguist we met in the park the first time we took Cassie there?" Carter asked.

Fraiser nodded. "The two of them have gotten close over the last six months. Jus is actually a blessing I hadn't been looking for." Daniel, O'Neill and Carter all frowned in askance. Teal'c just looked stoic. "Cassandra had a hard time settling into American society those first few months. She still struggles in some aspects. But when Justin first found out, maybe two or three weeks after Cassandra came to live here, he asked if he could come over and share his experiences with her. I saw no harm, but wondered how he could relate. I doubted anyone could. But I was wrong."

"What do you mean?" Carter asked.

"Jus grew up in some pretty remote areas of the world. When he was 11, his parents were killed and he was orphaned. He didn't know a thing about American society or even knew how to speak English."

"What?" Daniel asked. "How did you find that out?"

"He shared that with Cassandra the first couple of times he came over, and about his own first few months in American society. Somehow, he had managed to find his way to Washington DC after his parents were killed in South America, and he lived on the Washington streets for those first few weeks. Then he was found by a kind woman who took him in. She found him a home in Smallville, Kansas, with some friends of hers that couldn't have children of their own. It took them a year to finalise his adoption."

"The Kents." It was a statement, not a question, coming from Daniel. He probably had more to do with the linguist than most of the others in the room.

"Yes."

"Who found him?" O'Neill asked, genuinely interested in the 'kid' that had taken in another one of his 'kids' in.

"He never said. At least, not within my hearing. The two of them have been as thick as thieves since. Cassandra looks up to him like a big brother, and he sees her as the little sister he never had."

Carter smiled. "And Cassie's free to talk to him about anything and everything, seeing as he's cleared to work here and knows about the stargate. Another bonus for them."

 **SGC SGC SGC**

"Ma?" Jus called out as he let himself in to the farmhouse he'd grown up in in Smallville.

"In the kitchen," Martha returned. Although she always had a standing agreement with her son for him to visit whenever he had the chance, she didn't know which times he'd be 'flying' in or riding through on a news story. The person in question appeared behind her to gently squeeze her shoulders before leaning down to kiss her cheek.

"Hi, Ma," he greeted as he snagged a freshly baked cookie from her cooling tray.

Martha swatted her son's hands away. "Get your sticky paws off. Those are for the bake sale on Monday."

"Sorry," Jus apologised around a mouthful of cookie. He quickly finished the butterscotch cookie and really looked his mother over. The years hadn't really been kind to either of them: they had been through a lot, with her not being able to have children, and then being told that with Jonathon's heart condition, they were unlikely candidates for adoption before Jus himself was brought to them by Catherine Langford. There were times in that first year he was living with the Kent's that they had thought that his own adoption papers wouldn't go through. Jus wanted a big celebration when they finally did come through and he could legally change his name to 'Clark Justin Kent'. Things had been great for most of his schooling before Jonathon suffered from a major heart attack right before Jus' graduation from high school. "Thanks for the uniform, Ma. Was that your idea or Aunt Catherine's?"

She looked over the 6'4" boy – for Jus would always be a boy to her – and gave him a watery smile. "It was Catherine's."

Jus returned her smile and asked, "Are you thinking of Dad?"

"I wish he could see you now. He would be proud of you, Clark." Martha looked her boy over once more before she returned to her baking.

"I know, Ma. I wish he could be here too. And…" Jus ran his hand through his hair nervously as he continued, "… it's not like I've announced myself to the world yet."

"What happened?""

"I went and did something incredibly risky. I saved the lives of two people that I work with."

"Do you think they recognised you?"

"I don't think so. I hardly interact with them while I'm doing my translation work in Colorado, yet I think some of the people they work with would possibly recognise my house symbol." He sighed and looked around the kitchen. "Do you mind if we sit down? This could take a while."

Martha sharply turned her head to look at Jus. "What do you mean?"

"Do you remember the time I came home when I was 16 and told you and Dad about how Aunt Catherine first found me in DC? And you always wondered how I managed to get to DC in the first place from the Andes?"

She nodded. "You told us about the stargate, and explained to us that you came to Earth as a refugee from a planet called Krypton."

"Yes," he quickly agreed. "What I haven't told you is that I work with the people that run a program that leads teams to different places using that very same device. And on one of these teams is another offworlder that probably _would_ connect me with Krypton."

"Is that such a bad thing?"

"I don't know yet," Jus admitted.


	3. Part 2

_**Part Two**_

 _May, 1998_

Daily Planet, _Metropolis_

Lois Lane looked over her typed draft again and sighed. She hated the 'puff' piece she was currently working on, but until some of her leads on organised crime in Metropolis came back to her, she had hit a dead end. There was nothing else for her to do but wait, and that was even worse to her than doing the odd 'puff' piece that Perry put her up to. Running her hands through her chestnut coloured hair, she pulled her hair up into a messy pony tail.

She glanced across the bullpen toward Perry's office. _Daily Planet_ editor and chief, Perry White, was in there with his door closed and speaking with Jimmy Olsen, the _Planet's_ junior gofer. She sighed again and returned her attention to her computer screen just as her phone rang.

"Lois Lane," she answered her phone.

" _Are you near a TV set?"_ Lucy Lane's voice came over the phone.

"What?"

" _CNN. Watch the news broadcast."_

Lois was about to protest when the phone went dead in her hand. "Gee, thanks, Luce," she murmured to herself as she placed the receiver back in its cradle. And although she didn't want to do as her sister had suggested, Lois did take a quick glance and the monitors broadcasting the CNN station. She couldn't help but get fixated on the news coming out of Northern California. There were two office blocks of downtown San Francisco on fire and the fire was threatening to spread.

But that wasn't what had caught Lois's attention: it was one of the rescuers trying to contain the spread of the fire. She could briefly see the camera crews trying to focus on the young man who was speaking to the fire chief and clearly assessing the building structure. He seemed to gage that there were cameras on him, and turned his icy blue stare at one before he gave a single nod to the chief beside him. Lois felt her jaw drop as the camera crew followed the man's movements into the sky. Whoever 'he' was, Lois knew for certain, she would find out everything she could about him. No one in their right mind would believe a one-time story like a 'superhuman' man rescuing lives in San Francisco.

She almost jumped as her phone rang again. Her focus had been solely on the TV screens that she'd forgotten to do her own work. Picking the receiver up, she held it to her ear. "Lane."

 **SGC SGC SGC**

 _Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado_

Daniel was in his office working on a translation when his phone rang. "Hello?"

" _Daniel, the team's in the rec room,"_ Carter said from the other end of the line. _"You need to come see this, now."_

He sat up straighter. "See what?"

" _The 's' man from Midarin's on the news."_ The archaeologist heard a scuffle at the other end of the line before O'Neill was on the other end.

" _Get your monkey butt here, pronto."_ The line went dead.

Daniel looked at the phone in his hand before returning it to its cradle. If O'Neill and Carter were both telling him to get to the rec room to see the news, the archaeologist knew that it would be important. And it was only then that he actually registered what Carter had told him. "What?" he asked himself. The 's' man? His jaw dropped slightly and he rushed out of his office to where the rest of his team had gathered, along with a number of the other officers currently on base.

"What happened?" Daniel asked as he entered the room.

"Building fires in San Francisco," Carter answered. "About two hours ago."

"Do they know what caused it?"

"Initial reports say bomb threat or gas explosion. They won't know more until the fires are out. But what made the national news weren't the fires themselves," Carter responded, "but him." She pointed at a figure in red and blue, standing a head taller than those around him. No one could get a good close up of the man with the fire chief, but everyone was focused on his rescue efforts – and his blatant show of superhuman abilities.

"How's he doing that?"

"One explanation: he's not from Earth."

And it was only then that O'Neill pointed out the shield on the man's chest to Daniel. "There's also that. Teal'c told me that it was a symbol of Krypton."

"Which means what?"

"Did you ever figure out what Midarin means?"

"It's a form of Asgard, or Ancient. Close guess it means…" Daniel stopped and looked up at his teammates. "Earth."

"We were trapped on Earth?" O'Neill asked.

"Apparently," Daniel said. O'Neill frowned. So did Carter. Both were thinking about how the Kryptonian had gotten them back to the SGC.

"If we were on Earth, why didn't he just bring us back here, instead of taking us through the gate?" Carter asked.

"Perhaps it was the quickest way for him to get you to help," Teal'c put in. That answer seemed to satisfy the team and they went back to the news coverage of what was happening in San Francisco.

 **SGC SGC SGC**

"Sir, I think we have a problem," Carter began as SG-1 were given seats in the general's office.

Hammond leaned forward and rested his arms on his desk. "What is it, Captain?" he asked.

Carter and Daniel looked between themselves before they returned their attention back to Hammond. The captain swallowed and answered, "We've found out where that ice planet Colonel O'Neill and I went to."

"And where may that be?"

"The Arctic, or Antarctica. There is a second gate on Earth."

Hammond frowned and looked around the rest of SG-1 before he settled his gaze back on Carter. "Are you certain of this?"

"Positive, sir," Carter replied. "The man that rescued us just showed up to help out at some fires in downtown San Francisco. And he's definitely not human."

"Oh, and I wonder what gave _that_ fact away," O'Neill sarcastically drawled. "It wouldn't have something to do with the fact he _flew_?"

"Excuse me?"

"The man flew, sir," Carter said.

"Amongst other things," Daniel added.

Hammond opened his mouth and then closed it again. He leaned back in his chair and looked down at his interlocking fingers as he thought about what he would next do. "So, we have another alien living on Earth, with no way of determining his agenda or a way of contacting him at all?"

"That is correct," Teal'c put in.

"Find out what you can and report back to me as soon as you can," Hammond declared. "If this alien is hostile toward the people of this planet, then he is a threat to national security."

 **SGC SGC SGC**

 _Metropolis_

The next day, Lois was in Perry's office, trying to pitch the idea of an exposé on the mysterious stranger that had shown up in San Francisco. She was determined to find out all she could on the mysterious rescuer, because she knew that any man willing to help out in a major national disaster with his extraordinary powers would have done similar things on a smaller scale before.

Perry took her current copy off her and looked her square in the eye. "Are you sure there's a story here?"

"Yes," Lois returned without batting an eye. "You saw the footage from yesterday. No one got the man's name."

"It could have been a hoax."

"You and I both know it wasn't. So does the rest of the country. We all saw the live footage coming out of San Francisco yesterday. Now we just have to prove it. If I break this story, everyone will know _The Daily Planet_ , and everyone will know of the real hero of yesterday's fires."

Perry White nodded slowly, as if he was really thinking about what Lois was saying. "How long do you think you'll want for this exposé?"

"Give me two months. If I don't have anything solid by then, put me on another story. But just so you know, even if I don't have anything in two months, I'll still be working on this mysterious saviour of the San Fran fires."

That bought a half smile to the editor's face. "I wouldn't expect anything different from you, Lane. You've got two months to bring me something good."

Lois didn't stop the grin spreading across her face. Perry had given her the green light to go ahead and research the heroics of a man no one really knew the name of. But she made a promise to herself that she would be the first to find that out.

First things first: she needed to find out all she could about the fires in downtown San Francisco and what the people there were saying about the mysterious 'rescuer'.

 **SGC SGC SGC**

"Excuse me," Lois began. She was in New York at a brokerage firm after running through half a dozen leads trying to find something about the 'superman' that helped out in San Francisco. Nothing much had led to anything solid yet. At least, her leads had not given her anything solid past the past three months. The man had been a ghost until he blew the world off its feet when he displayed his unique skill set in the San Fran fires. She was hoping that her interview that day would change that and that she would get something solid to prove that she wasn't wasting her time.

The woman behind the desk looked up. "How can I help?"

"Hi. I'm Lois Lane, from _The Daily Planet._ I'm looking for a Don Pearson?"

"Do you have an appointment?"

The reporter gave the receptionist an awkward smile. "Sorry, no."

"I'll see if he's available. May I ask what the nature of your visit is?"

"Uh… it's about an incident that happened about five months ago. During that terrible weather that almost caused Mr Pearson's plane to crash."

"One moment." The receptionist reached for the phone and called the office of Don Pearson. When the man answered, she said, "Excuse me, sir. I have a Ms. Lois Lane here from _The Daily Planet_. She'd like to interview you about the accident five months ago. Shall I send her up…? Okay, I will let her know." Taking her eyes off the phone and returning it to Lois, the receptionist indicated to the seats near the main door. "Please take a seat. Mr. Pearson will be with you shortly."

The reporter did as requested and was looking over her notes and questions she wanted answered when she was joined by Don.

"Ms. Lane?"

Lois stood up at hearing her name. "Yes."

"Don Pearson." The man in question offered his hand in way of greeting. "I hear you want to ask some questions about what happened five months ago?"

"That is correct."

Don looked over to his receptionist. "Could you send somebody for some Starbucks?" Turning back to Lois, he asked, "Would you like anything?"

"I'm fine, thanks."

"Okay. You know what I like, Katrina." Don turned to face Lois fully. "Ms. Lane, I only have about 15 minutes to spare. Come on through to my office."

Lois fished out her recorder as she followed Don through the building to his office. "I'll make this brief, Mr. Pearson. Do you mind if I record the interview?"

"Go ahead."

"Okay. Five months ago, you were in a privately owned jet coming into JFK after being away on a business trip. Is that correct?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"This is just to make sure I have all the facts. You were approaching from the east, from the Atlantic, when you and your pilot became aware of a severe weather warning that was grounding all small, twin engine, jets. This warning would also include the plane that you were in."

"That is correct."

"Tell me, Mr. Pearson, what happened after you first got the warning from the tower at JFK to the time you landed on the tarmac?"

Don sighed – he was now sitting behind his desk while Lois was sitting opposite him. "I'm not sure what I can tell you, Ms. Lane. We were about third in line to land, as it had been declared an emergency for the smaller jets. I had just radioed the tower to come in for our approach when our engines began failing. We radioed in, declaring an emergency. My pilot almost lost control of the plane and I thought we were going to crash. The plane was getting thrown around in the wind – I thought we were going to get pulled apart by the storm when suddenly, the plane levelled out. Neither of us were exactly sure what happened or how we levelled out, because by that stage, we'd lost our first engine. The second one was about to go as well. When it did, we simply glided.

"When we asked the tower, they weren't sure what had happened either, as their instruments were playing up and they couldn't really see through the heavy rain. It amazed us that we actually landed safely at all. Neither of us felt the plane land, nor it come to a rest near the hangers where the private jets are stored. We were in shock, but I think I saw a man leave from under the body of our plane. But when I blinked and tried to get a closer look, he was gone."

Lois looked down at her notes and gathered her thoughts. She returned her attention back to Don. "Do you remember what this man looked like?"

"He wore a cape of some sort. And had some sort of shield on his chest, I think. I only caught a glimpse. I couldn't give you more than that. Why is that important?"

"I think the man you saw may be the same man that showed up in San Francisco a few days ago."

Don frowned. "The superman?"

"Yes," the reporter nodded.

"I'm sorry. I cannot confirm or deny that. As I said, I barely caught a glimpse of somebody or some _thing_ before they disappeared. The weather was extreme that day, and my eyes could have been playing tricks on me. I wish I could be more helpful. All I know is that I'm grateful to still be alive, whether or not my pilot and I were saved by this mysterious 'Superman'."

"Thank you for your help. It has been enlightening," Lois said. "I won't take up any more of your time."


	4. Part 3

_**Part Three**_

 _May and June 1998_

 _Cheyenne Mountain_

Jus bit his lower lip as he tentatively raised his hand to knock on General Hammond's office door. He wasn't sure why he'd been summoned to the general's door, and he couldn't help but think he was in trouble. For what, he wasn't sure, but it couldn't be anything good.

"Come," Hammond called.

The young man opened the door and slowly entered. "You called for me, sir?" Looking around the room, the linguist was surprised to see that Doctor Meyers was also in the office with General Hammond.

Hammond nodded. "Yes. You must be Mr. Kent."

"Jus, sir. Mr. Kent was my father."

"Please take a seat," Hammond said, indicating the only unoccupied chair in his office – the other was taken by Meyers. "Doctor Meyers was just informing me that you majored in journalism, as well as linguistics?"

"That's correct."

"Have you done any investigative work?"

"Some," Jus responded tentatively. "What is this about sir?"

Hammond gave Meyers a brief nod, giving the man permission to give Jus a rather thin file of a handful of stills – blurry pictures from the footage _Jus_ been a part of in San Francisco – and the rather crude drawing Carter had done of his family shield.

"Find out as much as you can about this man. When did he arrive on Earth? Where did he come from? How did he get here? SG-1 couldn't find much, other than the incident where he showed up to help Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter through a second gate, and the fires."

Jus looked up from the file. "You want me to investigate the…uh… _superman_ from the San Fran fires?"

"Would that be a problem?"

"No," Jus answered when in truth, he really wanted to say 'yes', it was a problem. And, oh goodness, he could just imagine what Cassandra, Catherine and his mother would say when he eventually told them he had been asked to, well, investigate _himself._ "When would you like this by, sir?"

 **SGC SGC SGC**

"Ma! Don't laugh," Jus grouched. "What am I supposed to do?"

Martha took a deep breath and held in her laughter – although the situation did warrant the humour – and looked over at Catherine. The older woman was struggling to keep her own laughter in. Both of them returned their attention to Jus. "Clark," Martha replied, "you are the person who decided to do journalism and linguistics. Do what journalists do and investigate."

"The best place to start," added Catherine, "is where Kal was last seen: San Francisco and then work your way backwards. You know where you've been as Kal, so go from there."

When Jus looked horrified at the two women, Martha rolled her eyes. "Son, treat this as any other investigative piece that you'd write for a newspaper."

"Only I have the distinct advantage: I know exactly how long Kal's been on Earth, where he's from and what he's here for. My problem is, I don't know how to let General Hammond know without giving myself away."

Catherine sighed. "Justek, take a deep breath and calm down. Your mother is right. You need to treat this like any other investigation you'd do for a news article. You _won't_ give anything away, because you've always been very careful. Even as a child, it was hard to get anything out of you." Jus took the deep breath that his aunt Catherine wanted him to and he focused on her face. She gave him a small smile and continued, "You have never once mentioned to us where you spent the first 11 years of your life, or who you spent it with. Just that there were some people after you."

"The Goa'uld," Jus stated. "And the ship I was sent away from Krypton crash landed on a planet called Charias. That's where I spent the majority of my childhood. And I hope one day you could meet the three people that helped raise me: Martouf, Rosha and Saroosh."

Martha smiled. "I hope so too, son."

Jus sighed. "I guess you're right, Aunt Catherine. I'll be careful. I'm just worried they'll get too close and discover a way to hurt you to get to me."

 **SGC SGC SGC**

There was an advantage of being tasked to find, well, himself, Jus found. He asked Hammond if he could do the research on his own terms: that he could work from his home office and only be required to go into Cheyenne Mountain once a week to deliver findings and translation work. Jus had explained that because the general had asked him to research a supposed 'public' figure, there would be times he would have to make a quick exit from the mountain to follow up leads – and a 'quick' exit from the mountain took anywhere between thirty minutes to an hour. By then, the leads would not be as 'fresh' and would not turn up as much information as if he was working off site.

Hammond agreed to the arrangement for the short term. He gave Jus three weeks to turn up any useful information about Kal El before the young linguist was required to continue working out of the mountain. After all, Jus _was_ employed as a linguist first and foremost, and not as a researcher and journalist for the base.

Running a hand over his face, Jus looked at his computer screen and the blank word document that was on the screen. Beside him was his small dictation machine – blank of course.

The curser blinked. Jus blinked right back at it. He tilted his head to the side. In the background, his radio was tuned to the national news channel. There was something there, he was sure of it. He heard a small voice crying – and that was all he needed to leave his house in a whirlwind of colour.

 **SGC SGC SGC**

"What'cha working on?" Cassandra asked. She'd spent most school afternoons while Doctor Fraiser worked around at Jus' place since he began his three week research into Kal El. They both knew that it wouldn't last unless Jus was commissioned to research more of the daily activities of aliens outside the SGC.

Jus looked up from his laptop and gave Cassandra a smile. Already the two of them knew their time spent together while he researched was drawing to a close. He'd already spent two and a half weeks trying to think of possible information to give to Hammond and had only really reported on the general information that most journalists knew.

"I'm trying to think of a plausible explanation of getting information about Kal that the General would buy," Jus returned.

"When did Kal El first rescue somebody?" the 12-year-old asked. "Weren't you traveling the world at that stage?" The man blinked and turned his attention fully at the girl. "I mean, could you have found out about Kal back then and was trying to chase him down?"

"You're a genius. Did you know that?" He got up from his desk and went over to her side. Placing a kiss on her forehead, Jus pulled back and gave Cassandra a bright smile. "Thanks. I know exactly what to do now."

Cassandra returned the smile. "You're welcome."

He lowered himself to the lounger next to her. "Well, seeing as I can type up my 'research' from my travels at super speed, what do you want to do?"

"Can you tell me more of your planet?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Why did your parents send you away from Krypton? Surely your people could have defeated the Goa'uld?"

Jus' smile fell and he looked down at his lap. "You know, that was something I always struggled with when I was growing up." He began playing with the ring with the blue meteorite in it. "It's complicated, Cass. I grew up with the knowledge that I was the only survivor of a doomed planet that I initially thought the Goa'uld were responsible for. They weren't. It was actually the fault of the Kryptonians themselves that caused the planet's destruction. My father, Jor El, found out that Krypton's core was unstable and tried to get the government to see. The leaders didn't take his warnings to heart and continued to drill for resources. They also had my father 'silenced' and sworn not to take action. So my parents did the only thing they could do."

"They built a ship big enough to hold one."

Jus nodded. "My parents started building the ship that eventually took me to Charias before I was even born." He swallowed and looked down at the ring on his finger. It was special to him: a remembrance of a time where innocence and destruction went hand in hand – a reminder of the home he never knew and a place that fostered very few relationships. "The day that they finished the ship, I was a month old. That was the day that the Goa'uld showed up." He paused again and took in a deep breath. "It was the day that the core of Krypton collapsed in on itself."

Cassandra looked at the ring that Jus was playing with. "So what happened after that?"

"My birth parents put me in the ship they'd built for me, and sent me off. The ship was damaged on my escape from the system by the Goa'uld, but not enough for it to stop my jump into hyperspace. The only real damage that occurred was to the navigation system and part of the stasis system."

"What do you mean?"

Jus sighed and stopped moving the ring around on his finger. "I don't really remember. I was only four when I was found by the Tok'ra on Charias." The two of them jumped when they heard the doorbell ring. "Okay, enough morbid talk. You should get on with your homework," Jus said, shaking the both of them out of their discussion. He got up and started moving toward the door just as the doorbell rang again. "Alright, alright. I'm coming!" He got to the door and pushed his glasses up his nose. Opening the door, he found himself face to face with a brunette woman in a business suit. "May I help you?"

"Afternoon. I hope you can," the woman answered. "I'm looking for a Mr. Clark Kent. I was told he lived here."

"May I inquire as to whom is asking?" Jus returned. But he didn't really need to – he recognised the woman who stood in front of him. It had been thirteen years since he'd last seen Lois Lane, and though she hadn't changed a lot in the intervening years, he knew that _he_ had. He was no longer the scrawny, short kid he'd been at fourteen, and not many of his high school classmates would recognise him as being the same person.

The woman at his door brought her eyes up to connect her gaze with his. If she had to guess at his height, she'd put him around 6'2". "Oh, sorry. My name is Lois Lane. I work for _The Daily Planet_."

"Jus, who is it?" Cassandra called out. She came running out to the hall.

Jus turned to look back at the pre-teen. "It's just a reporter, Cass. Homework. Go." He turned his attention back to Lois. "Sorry. Now, why are you looking for Mr. Kent?"

Lois dug into her bag and pulled out an old newspaper article. "Because of this."

He took the paper off her and scanned the article with his by-line on it. The article was dated nearly six years before, when he'd spent some time in a small, backwater town outside Manchester. And when he'd written a piece on who the world was now calling 'Superman'. "How'd you find this?"

"I dug. Could you help me find the man that wrote this article or not?"

"I prefer Jus, not Clark." He gave her a tentative smile as he watched her jaw drop. He blinked and looked back down at the article he held in his hand. "You'd better come in. This could take a while." Jus stepped aside and allowed Lois to enter his Colorado home. "Take your shoes off."

"Excuse me?"

"Take your shoes off," Jus replied. It was only then that Lois realised that Jus had answered the door in his stockinged feet. And the girl she saw earlier was also wandering around the house in bare feet.

He led her through to the living area, where Cassandra had settled down to do her homework. "Cass," he said, and the girl looked up. "Meet Ms. Lane from _The Daily Planet._ Ms. Lane, this is my sister, Cassandra Fraiser." Cassandra beamed at Jus; she felt safe in the fact that though the two of them weren't related biologically, Jus would always put her safety first – like he did with all his immediate family.

Lois blinked at the introduction and said, "You have different last names."

"Yes. We were adopted by different families after our parents died," Jus explained. He didn't elaborate on the situation further than that, and Lois didn't question it. After all, it wasn't exactly a lie, and yet, it wasn't quite the _whole_ truth either. He led her to the loungers and took a seat. "Ms. Lane, I don't have all day and it's not often I get a chance to spend some quality time with my sister. What is it you wanted to ask me?"

Lois sat opposite him and asked, "What do you know about the man you wrote about in your article?"

"The man in black? Not a lot really. Just what the witnesses told me when I talked to them after the accident. Why are you so interested in an accident that happened six years ago? In England, no less."

The female reporter looked taken aback at the questions put to her by Jus. "I'm trying to find out the history of that 'super' man that showed up in San Francisco three weeks ago. I think the 'man in black' that helped out at the accident you reported on in England is the same man that helped out at the San Fran fires."

Jus looked Lois over and wondered what his next move would be. _He_ knew that he'd been in both places and helped out as a rescue worker. But he hadn't really expected _anyone_ to connect the pieces together. He'd been so careful about what he'd written about himself as a freelance journalist in England that until Lois had brought it up again, he'd generally 'forgotten' the accident he'd shown up at. "What evidence do you have that these two incidences are connected?"

"None. That's why I'm here. I want to know exactly what happened that day. Was there anything you missed in your story?"

He frowned and looked down at his ring. "All I know the witnesses telling me was that there was a man that came to help them out. No one got a good look at his face, and he didn't speak much. It was like the man was a ghost. They later admitted to me that they weren't really sure if there _was_ a man that showed up to help. And there wasn't really a lot of evidence that pointed to some supernatural being actually being there at the accident site. I checked with the police and the clean-up crew."

Lois pursed her lips and wasn't sure if she should really believe this man. But she couldn't really force the issue if he refused to co-operate. Which, she had a feeling, he would be very good at. She took another look over the man sitting opposite her and she frowned. There was something in the way that Jus held himself that struck a chord with her. Like she'd meet him before somewhere. She shook her head and looked down at her notes. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Kent." As she said that, she caught sight of his by-line again. Her frown deepened. 'Clark J. Kent, _USA correspondent_.' "You're freakin' kidding me!"

"Ms. Lane?"

She looked up at Jus and really looked him over, trying to place him with the memories she had of Smallville, Kansas, and her single semester at Smallville High in her freshman year. But she couldn't really see the resemblance between the slight, strange Kent kid and the giant of a man that now sat before her. She blinked and shook her head. It couldn't be the same person. There was just too much of a difference between her memories and what he'd become. "Sorry. I thought I just recognised your name for a minute from someone I knew back in Smallville."

"Smallville?" Jus asked with a frown, pretending he hadn't heard of the town he'd grown up in. So Lois _did_ remember his name then.

"It's a town in Kansas. Thank you for your time, Mr. Kent."


	5. Part 4

_**Part Four**_

 _June, 1998_

 _Cheyenne Mountain_

Jus looked up just as he was finishing his last bits of preparation. He was in the gate room with SG-1, ready to depart for a three day trip as their official linguist and translator – Daniel had gone with SG-9 to another planet and had left Jus to do the translating for SG-1. After his visit from Lois, he'd been rattled. From what he remembered about the woman from when she'd been a teen in Smallville, she was a bulldog going after a story. And he had a feeling that her instincts for chasing after a story had only grown in the intervening years.

"All set to head through the gate?" Carter asked with a smile.

"A-as ready as I c-can b-be," Jus stuttered. He was nervous; and he had every right to be. It would be his first 'official' trip through the stargate since he arrived on Earth just over 16 years before. And he was also worried about what the general would say about the report Jus had given him that morning about Kal El. That had been just after he was told he'd be stepping through the gate with SG-1.

"It's a piece of cake," O'Neill said, joining the two of them at the base of the ramp. Teal'c raised an eyebrow at the expression but said nothing. "You don't have allergies or anything?"

Jus frowned at the strange question. "No. Why?"

"Good. Carter, you take point. Teal'c, you follow. I've got your six. And Mr Green-Jeans." O'Neill watched his team, plus Jus, walk up the ramp to the open wormhole. Just as he was about to head through the stargate himself, the colonel looked back over his shoulder to the observation window and to where Hammond was watching. He raised a hand to where Jus had been as if to ask: 'Really, General? Another science geek?'

Hammond just nodded at the gate, silently informing his second-in-command to get going. O'Neill took the hint and turned back to the 'gate. He entered the wormhole as he slid his sunglasses on.

Upon exiting, he looked around his new surroundings. Carter was looking down at her instruments, working out which way to go. Teal'c was on alert for any dangers (not that they thought this planet was a danger). It was Jus, however, that surprised the colonel. Jus was quickly taking in the surroundings, and possible escape cover. O'Neill frowned.

"What's with you, kid?"

Jus took a moment to realise the colonel was talking to him. "I spent some time on the streets. I learnt to look for escape routes that provided the most cover."

O'Neill nodded, not even bothering to ask why Jus had spent time on the streets. From what Fraiser had told SG-1 when he was confined to the infirmary, Jus had had it pretty rough for a while. Anyone in that situation would learn basic survival skills that would stick with them for life. Turning to his second-in-command, he asked, "Carter, which way to this village we're going to?"

Carter pointed south and to some hills. "About a mile that way, sir."

"Alright, campers, let's get moving." The colonel turned once more to Jus and added, "I just hope you're as good as everyone is claiming, Jus. With a gun as well as the spoken word."

"I won't let you down, Colonel O'Neill," the linguist replied.

The four of them made their way to the village the mount had found earlier. It didn't take them long to get to the village and for Jus to make himself useful. O'Neill, Carter and Teal'c were all surprised at the speed that Jus managed to get the villages warmed up to him and SG-1. That was, he had all but a stout few of the middle aged men at the back interested in what SG-1 and Earth had to offer them.

Jus found himself wandering away from the group once Carter and O'Neill took over the discussions. They knew more about what the General and SGC wanted them to do than the linguist did; and he could tell they could handle themselves. He sighed and looked around the outskirts of the village. And if he could admit it to himself, he was worried about what he'd find once he got back to Earth.

"I think you did well back there," a voice interrupted his musings. Jus swung around to take in his unexpected visitor. It was one of the men that hadn't seemed overly impressed with his introductions. The young linguist gave a brief nod at the compliment. "But you seem more at ease out here than in there with everyone."

Jus couldn't help smiling slightly at that. Of course, he knew that perfectly well. "I've never really been comfortable with crowds."

"I understand perfectly. I have a friend like that."

"Unless I am mistaken, it cannot be someone from here. This is a close community. Everybody knows everybody else." Jus narrowed his eyes slightly, as he looked the older man over once more. "So are you going to introduce yourself?"

"Forgive me, I am Quinta."

"Hello Quinta. I assume you're the host?"

Quinta frowned at the question, not really sure what Jus was talking about. "Excuse me?"

Jus smiled slightly. How was he to explain to this man that, as a child, he'd discovered that he could 'sense' a symbiote in a person without having been a host himself? It was something he hadn't ever shared with the people on Earth. In fact, he could count on one hand how many people actually knew he had the 'gift' of sensing Goa'uld (or in the case of his adoptive family, Tok'ra) symbiotes. "I can sense that you're a host. The question is, why would a symbiote hide without trying to draw attention to themselves? The only ones that I know do that are the Tok'ra."

Quinta bowed his head and then returned his attention to Jus. The man's voice distorted, letting Jus know that his guess was right: Quinta was a host. "How do you know about the Tok'ra?"

"I'm not originally from Terra. Care to introduce yourself?"

"My name is Fides."

"And you're here with…?" Jus trailed, knowing that this Tok'ra would pick up that he knew about the other hidden Tok'ra symbiote within the mist of the Nasyans.

"Lantash. He is in my host's daughter, Talia."

Jus tried to keep his face neutral upon hearing the name of the second Tok'ra symbiote. He knew the second symbiote: Lantash (and his previous host, Martouf) had been one of the three Tok'ra that had found him as a three year old child on Charias. Martouf, who had become a brother to Jus, was gone, if Lantash was now in another host. "What happened? No, wait, how old is Talia?"

"She is fifteen. She only agreed to become Lantash's host if it would be only temporal."

"May I speak to her?"

"Of course." Fides, and Quinta to some extent, was puzzled by Jus' change in behaviour. The only thing that had changed, really, was the linguist finding out the name of the second Tok'ra. "Do you know Lantash?"

"In a way, yes," Jus replied. "Why are the two of you hiding?"

"We were caught up in a dispute between Nirrti and a rival system lord. They sent out an Ashrak after us. We barely escaped and crash landed on this planet. Our previous hosts were fatally injured and beyond our natural abilities to heal, when Quinta and his daughter came to our rescue. Quinta agreed to be my new host almost instantly, whereas he had to persuade his daughter to help Lantash, if only for the interim."

Jus asked, "So what's Quinta's story then?"

The man bowed his head slightly and then blinked as Quinta took control again. "I moved here with my two-month-old daughter after our native planet was destroyed by the Goa'uld. My wife was killed by one of the serpent guards. I heard rumours of a race similar to the Goa'uld, but was resisting them. When Talia and I came across Fides and Lantash with their previous hosts and they told us their stories, I felt that I could help them out, and get back at the people that took my wife from me."

"And Talia?"

"She just wants to be a normal child." The two of them were silent until Quinta came to his home he shared with his daughter. "What is your story? How did you end up with the Tauri?"

"Not much to tell. I grew up virtually alone on a deserted world, with occasional visits from Martouf. Left that world at 11, because everyone needs a friend. Ended up on Earth."

"Why didn't you go with Martouf?" Quinta asked as he entered his home.

"Personal reasons," Jus returned. He didn't really know this particular Tok'ra. Or in fact, the man was Tok'ra.

The only other occupant of the home looked up from her patchwork. Talia watched her father close the door behind him before she asked, "Did you know Martouf?"

Jus looked around the humble accommodations as he nodded. It wasn't quite what he expected: there were only a few masculine things lying around the small quarters while there was an abundance of patchwork and handcrafts. He frowned as he tried to take in everything.

Talia put down her patchwork and greeted her father. "Ada, who's this?"

"He's a visitor from off world. His name is Jus."

The girl's eyes widened and she turned her attention to the man she didn't know, trying to take in Jus' features. She seemed to be searching for a name. "Justek?" she finally asked.

Jus gave her a small smile. "Hello, Lantash."

She took in his appearance and then her gaze landed on his right hand and the mounted blue stone he wore on his middle finger. "Where did you get that stone?"

"Mother gave it to me just before I left for Terra. What was the last thing you told me before I left?"

Talia looked toward the ground, then returned her attention to Jus. "Lantash says he told you to take care of the people you were going to protect. And to look after yourself. Oh, and something about learning to trust others."

The linguist nodded, and inquisitively looked the 15-year-old over. "Is there a reason why he's not speaking to me himself?"

"I asked him not to."

"Is it true that you only wanted to be a temporary host?" Talia nodded. Jus gave her a reassuring smile. "I need to thank you, for being willing to take Lantash, even if it was for a short time."

Both father and daughter looked at Jus strangely. "What do you mean?" Quinta asked.

"If Lantash and Talia agree, I am willing to be host. For however long I am left alive."

 **SGC SGC SGC**

When Jus finally re-joined SG-1, he was bonded to Lantash. Quinta, Fides and Talia were all curious about the relationship between Jus and Martouf, as neither Lantash nor his new host would reveal anything to them. All they really knew was what Jus had told them: Martouf and Lantash had met Jus on a deserted planet while he was a kid.

Carter turned to look at the linguist as he paused by her side. "How are you coping with everything?" she asked.

"There's so much to take in."

"First trip through the stargate can do that to a person. You've done well though."

Jus gave her a tight smile. If only she knew. "Thanks," he murmured.

Teal'c looked over at them before his attention was drawn to the skies. O'Neill noticed Teal'c's gaze and followed it. Carter frowned and turned around to see what the Jaffa and her commanding officer were looking at. Jus also turned his attention to the skies.

"Teal'c, how far away do you think those things are?" O'Neill asked, staring at the distant outlines of two death gliders and an al'kesh.

"No more than 10 minutes."

"We're going," O'Neill issued out. "Everyone to the stargate. We're going to save as many of these people as we can."

Carter and Teal'c nodded, beginning to lead the people back to the stargate. Jus froze for a moment before he scanned the crowd and repeated the command in the local language of the people: "If you want to live, head for the stargate. Leave all you can spare behind."

The people obeyed. They fell in line behind Teal'c and Carter, making a dash for the ring that would transport them between worlds. By the time the Nasyans and SG-1 got to the gate, and Teal'c was dialling, the al'kesh and the gliders were upon them.

Jus stood at the side of the gate and ushered people through. Teal'c had led the way through the gate to explain to General Hammond what was happening, and Jus couldn't help but feel a prang of sadness as he saw Talia take a hit to the back and was instantly gone. Quinta, who'd been running beside his daughter, also fell with the force of the hit. O'Neill was between him and the gate, so Jus couldn't really see what Carter was doing before the colonel was barking orders. All around the glade were fallen Nasyans that never made it to the gate.

"Jus!" O'Neill called out, snapping Jus' attention back to the present. "Through the 'gate. Now."

Jus obeyed. He was inwardly shaking when he got to the other side of the 'gate: he wasn't really used to seeing such destruction from the Goa'uld as what he'd seen on Nasya. Swallowing hard, he looked around the chaos that was the Nasyan refugees. And when Carter came through the 'gate behind him, he wondered how much of his past would remain secret now that she was host to Fides. He quickly glanced her way and she gave him a slight nod. Neither of them would reveal their dual identities.

 **SGC SGC SGC**

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Jus asked as he entered Hammond's office once again, the day after SG-1 had returned from Nasya.

"This research," Hammond said, "is good. How long had you been following this 'Kal El' person?"

"My first contact with him was in 1992, just after I moved to Manchester. You've read that first story I have in there."

The general nodded. "Yes. Was that the first time you spoke to him?"

"It wasn't until about a week ago that I actually spoke to him, sir. In the beginning, I was just chasing shadows, and trying to learn as much about other cultures of this world as I could."

"Then how did you manage to piece together all of this?"

Jus gave the general a ghost of a smile. "It's what reporters do, sir. Search through all the information and piece it all together. And I had some help to put the final piece together just before the mission to Nasya."

"How so?"

"It seems that there is a reporter on the staff at _The Daily Planet_ that is very interested in the 'Superman' of the San Francisco fires. She somehow put my article from six years ago with what happened on the west coast recently. It was only then that I made the connection myself."

Hammond was just about to ask another question of Jus when O'Neill burst through the office door. The general scowled at his second-in-command until the colonel apologised for interrupting the meeting.

"We have a situation with Carter, sir," O'Neill said. "She's Goa'uld."

"Excuse me?" Hammond asked.

Jus looked stunned, trying to figure out _how_ Fides was detected, and then realised Carter mentioned going to visit Cassandra. "Where's Cass?"

"Fraiser's office."

 **SGC SGC SGC**

Carter clasped her hands behind her back and raised her chin slightly. Jus was on the other side of the cage, standing to his full height. His hands were also clasped behind his back, in the Tok'ra fashion.

"What did you say to Cassandra?"

"Cassandra?" the Tok'ra asked.

"The girl Captain Carter visited at the hospital this morning. The one that informed the people here that you're a 'Goa'uld'?"

"What's it to you?"

Jus set his jaw and stepped closer to the bars. He leaned down slightly and whispered, "You do not want to make an enemy of me, Fides. Cassandra will not speak to me."

"Why should concern me?"

"How would you feel if Talia had refused to speak to _your former host?"_ Jus hissed. "Cassandra is my sister." Suddenly, Jus' body language changed. He slouched, and if Fides hadn't known that the man was host to Lantash, the Tok'ra would assume one of two things: Jus was an Ashrak or he was a Goa'uld.

It was soon clear as to Jus' change in posture when O'Neill came into the holding cells. "Ooo-kay," O'Neill began. "What's happening here?"

"I just wanted to know what she said to my sister," Jus answered. "Cass won't say a word to me."

"Is that unusual?"

"For a kid that shares most everything with me? Yes." Jus took one final look at Carter and her symbiote and added, "It looks like I won't find out what happened with Cassandra here." He turned from the cage and left the holding cells.

 **SGC SGC SGC**

It was only really after Daniel arrived back on Earth the second morning after the relocation of the Nasyans with SG-9 that things really began to escalate. Carter had warned both O'Neill and Teal'c that they were sentencing her to death if they kept her locked up in the SGC. Neither of them really believed that Fides was wanted dead by the System Lords because of something he'd done to anger them.

Carter, or really, Fides, had told the truth when it came to the symbiote's history. An Ash'rak, sent by Cronus, had shown up to kill Fides, and his current host. And Daniel had shown up with SG-9 when the Ash'rak was trying to escape through the stargate. SG-9 had quickly dispatched the Ash'rak that had attacked Jus when the young linguist stepped in the killer's way.

Daniel looked around the embarkation room in shock just as O'Neill and Hammond came through the main bay doors to stand with Teal'c (who happened to be holding a zat'nik'tel, pointed at Jus and the Ash'rak).

"Is everybody alright?" Hammond asked.

SG-9 replied in the affirmative.

"Yeah," Daniel replied. "What happened here?"

Jus coughed slightly from where he was seated on the ground. "I'm fine, sir."

Hammond looked down at the young linguist and gave a slight nod. "Infirmary, Mr Kent. Colonel, make sure he gets there." Turning to the returning team, the general looked them over. "Welcome back, SG-9. As you can tell, a lot has happened since you've been gone. Briefing in 0100 hours. Doctor Jackson, you may want to follow me."

"General?" Daniel asked with a frown.

"On the recent mission SG-1 had, Captain Carter became host to a Goa'uld by the name of Fides."

"Latin for reliability and trust," the archaeologist mused. "Fides was one of the Roman goddesses – the only one that actually was modelled after the virtues most people still value today." He paused and blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Captain Carter was, or is, a host to a symbiote named Fides. That Ash'rak, hunter, person SG-9 just killed was sent to kill Fides."

"Is Sam okay?"

Hammond pursed his lips, not really sure how to answer that particular question from the archaeologist. Carter had been rushed to the base infirmary while Fraiser was busy working on saving the captain's life.

 **SGC SGC SGC**

Jus gently laid a hand on Cassandra's shoulder as the young pre-teen leaned over to comfort Carter. Cassandra flinched slightly, and the linguist wasn't really sure what he'd done to upset the girl.

"Cass…" he whispered slightly. "Captain Carter will eventually be okay."

Cassandra sniffed. "You were supposed to protect her," she returned, and if it hadn't been for the fact Jus had removed his ring and left it behind in his desk in his apartment, he wouldn't have heard her reply. She turned to face her brother. "Why couldn't you have protected her from becoming a host, Justin?"

Jus blinked at the harshness of the words. Rarely did anyone call him 'Justin'. It was even rarer for someone who knew him well, and actually knew the name he'd grown up with to call him by the Earth equivalent of 'Justek'. He pulled a chair over and sat down beside Carter's bedside. The two of them were alone with Carter in the infirmary. Everyone else had gone their separate ways after they could see that Carter was on the mend.

"Remember the stories I told you of the Tok'ra?"

"How did you know that this one was a Tok'ra? It could have tricked you!"

Jus slowly shook his head. "Fides didn't trick me. She couldn't."

"How can you be so sure?" Cass looked him over and spotted the missing ring Jus no longer wore. "Where's your ring?"

"Remember the promise I made you, back when I first told you of the Tok'ra?"

Cassandra looked closely at her brother, wondering why he was bringing up that promise when she knew that he _wasn't_ a host, or the fact that Carter _hadn't_ been host to one of the three symbiotes Jus had grown up with. She nodded slowly.

"I can sense the symbiotes as well, Cass. It's part of my biology. Which also means that if I ever did become a host, I could hide the symbiote's signature. And I made you a promise. There would be only one of three Tok'ra I would offer to be host for."

She blinked slightly and looked Jus over, wondering what he was talking about. That was when Carter rolled over and looked at the two of them. Jus gave the captain a sad smile and looked back at his sister.

"How are you feeling, Captain Carter?" Jus asked her.

"I'm tired, confused and…" she trailed, not really wanting to put into words the sadness she felt at the loss of Fides.

"That's understandable. Did you ever fully bond with Fides?"

Carter shook her head. "I do remember you saying to Quinta and Talia that you'd grown up with visits from Martouf."

"I did," Jus admitted. That was when Cassandra realised that Carter was now in on the secret that her brother was not a native of Earth.

Cassandra frowned. She'd heard stories about Martouf, one of her brother's protectors while he'd grown up on Charias. "Was Martouf and Lantash on Nasya?"

Jus nodded. "Yes, Lantash was. Martouf had already been killed. That is why I knew that Fides was also a Tok'ra."

"What's going to happen now?" the pre-teen asked. She was worried that Carter would turn her brother in as the 'alien' he was. Carter wouldn't be able to keep that from anybody. "Are you going to be in trouble?"

"No," Carter said quietly. "Jus is a refugee, just like you. And I doubt it will make much difference. Although I will have to report it to General Hammond. How long have you been on Earth?"

Jus smiled slightly. Carter wasn't going to report on the second part of his identity. At least, not at present. "Sixteen years," he replied. "We should let you rest."


	6. Part 5

**SGC SGC SGC**

 _ **Part Five**_

 _July, Metropolis_

Lois Lane dug around in her purse for a cigarette. She found one and placed it in the corner of her mouth. She then pulled out her lighter. Lighting the flame, she moved it close to light her cigarette before the flame was blown out. She frowned and tried lighting the cigarette again. The lighter was blown out a second time.

"You really shouldn't smoke, Ms. Lane," a deep voice scolded her.

Turning around to see who had joined her on the rooftop of _The Daily Planet,_ Lois felt her jaw drop slightly when she spotted Kal El floating a few feet from where she was standing. She frowned. "You know who I am?" she asked.

He folded his arms across his chest and rolled his eyes. "I do read the paper occasionally, Ms. Lane."

She snorted slightly. "Not everybody reads the _Planet._ So what brings you to Metropolis?"

"You."

"Me?" she shot back. "Why me?"

He landed softly on the roof beside her. His icy gaze shifted over her and she shivered slightly. If she wasn't convinced that he was alien before (what with the flying and everything else), his stare definitely would have convinced her: there was something deeply alien about the way he seemingly looked right through her. When he noticed her shiver, he realised she was reacting to the intensity of his stare and he diverted his gaze to look out over the Metropolis skyline.

"Yes." His voice was barely above a whisper, but there was so much power behind that one word that Lois felt it reverberate within her very being. Not many people could really command her attention with just a quiet 'yes', but for some reason, this man before her had found a way to do just that. He turned his attention back down at her, and she knew that no matter where this man was, he would be able to command the attention of every person around him with the way he held himself and the way that he spoke. "I came to speak to you."

Lois looked up into his face. And that was when it dawned on her how tall the man actually was. He was easily 6'4". When she opened her mouth to ask a question, her mind went blank. It had been weeks since she first began her quest to find out the truth about Kal El, and after speaking to Jus the previous week in Colorado Springs, she'd hit a dead end. She couldn't find any reference to the man in front of her before that first article that Jus had written six years before.

"I know that there are many questions out there about who I am, and where I'm from."

"You're here to give me an interview?"

"Yes," he answered simply.

"Okay," she returned, searching for her tape recorder. "What's your name and what does the 's' stand for on your uniform?"

"My name is Kal El. And it is not an 's'. It's my house symbol. On my world, it means 'hope' or 'star'. My name means 'child of hope' or 'star child'."

Lois smirked at that. "Well, on Earth, it still looks like an 's'. Where are you from?"

"I come from a planet called Krypton."

"How long have you been on Earth? I mean, you didn't just show up one day and decide to help people out in San Francisco."

"I have been here a few years, yes," he said with a smile. "I first helped out at an accident six years ago in England. At the time, I did not realise my powers would set me apart from the people on this planet. I did not mean to cause panic. My main purpose is to help."

"Help?"

"Yes. Like with the people in England, China, Japan, and here in the United States."

"So," Lois began as she worried her lower lip. She wasn't sure how well her most pressing question would be received by the powerful alien. He looked down at her and raised an eyebrow, silently asking her to spit the question out already. "Is there any way to stop you? After all, you seemed pretty invincible flying into that mine explosion just outside Manchester, or the San Francisco fires, or even the bushfire in Colorado just a few days ago."

Kal El seemed to be distracted at the question, as if he was listening to some far off sound only he could hear. He turned his attention back down to Lois as he lifted himself into the air. "Yes, Ms. Lane. There is a way, and there are people on this planet that know it."

"What is it?" Lois asked, hoping for more of an answer than that.

"I may be invulnerable, Ms. Lane; yet the people that know the answer to that question are not. There is a way to stop me, and those people who know _will_ step in and stop me if they see I have crossed the line between giving hope, and taking it." Kal El rose further out from _The Daily Planet_ rooftop. "I am needed elsewhere. Good day."

Lois stared at the place that the Kryptonian had just vacated, and wished there had been more time for her to ask questions of the strange visitor from another planet.

 **SGC SGC SGC**

Perry White looked at the article in his hand, and wished that he had an original photo to go with it. He moved his gaze up from the copy to Lois's impatient face. "So, he actually came and spoke to you?"

"If by 'he' you mean Superman, then yes. It's all there in that article."

"What now?" the editor asked.

Lois frowned and shifted her weight to her other foot. "What do you mean?"

"You wouldn't be in here if you didn't want something else from me. What is it?"

"There's something happening with the Air Force base in Colorado Springs. A friend of a friend sent me a few notes of something going on there when he found out I was researching Superman."

Perry frowned slightly. "It's a military base, Lois. No unauthorized access. You, of all people, should know that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Given your dislike of the Air Force, and the military in general, I would have thought that you would not want anything to do with conspiracy theories and ghost stories. Do you have any proof whatsoever of something happening there that shouldn't?"

"When I was in Colorado Springs, interviewing this Kent guy, and I heard rumours of things happening around the base that is not really explained by their charter. They're supposed to be doing something like 'deep space radar telemetry', or something like that. Tell me, why would they need medical personal and linguists working there if they're studying _space?_ "

"Perhaps they are working on sending out messages through radar," Perry suggested. But even then, he doubted that was _all_ that was happening out of Cheyenne Mountain if there was also medical staff at the base – but then, which military base would not also have staff on site to take care of the health of its military personal? "It could also be a military training site, Lois."

"Next week, there's this awards ceremony in DC that I'm sure people from that base will be at. Let me go and see if I can talk to them and get an interview. After that, if I still need to dig for facts, I'll work on my own time."

Perry shook his head and looked back down at the copy in his hand. "First it's this business about Superman. Now you're wanting me to believe there are _other_ aliens out there and the military has something to do with it."

"After finding out about one alien, you find it a hard stretch to believe there could be other aliens out there?"

"Fine!" the chief growled. "Go to the awards ceremony, see if you can find anything out. If you can't, then that will be the end of it. Focus on things that you _can_ prove, Lois. And stick to things in Metropolis, if at all possible."

 **SGC SGC SGC**

 _Washington DC_

Lois looked around her surroundings at the government buildings, and wondered to herself how she would convince her father to let her into the award ceremony that afternoon. Or be able to catch one of the officers working out of Cheyenne Mountain.

"Are you Lane?"

The woman spun around to see a kid on a skateboard staring up at her. "That's me."

"Amand Selig told me to give you this." The splotchy faced boy held up a tape recorder. "In return, he said you'd give me lunch."

Lois rolled her eyes and dug around in her purse. Selig had warned her that if she wanted the information he'd found regarding the Air Force base at Cheyenne Mountain, she'd have to fork out a lunch or two. Pulling out some vouchers for Café Berlin, she handed them over. "That should give you a decent meal."

The kid took the vouchers off her. "Sweet! Thanks." He handed over the tape recorder and shot off on his skateboard.

She watched him leave, and almost jumped when she heard someone else call her name from behind her. Placing a hand over her heart, she turned around and found her eyes drawn up to take in Jus' blue gaze.

"Ms. Lane?"

"What are you doing here?" she almost spat, trying to get her equilibrium back. "Shouldn't you be in Colorado?"

"I was invited here," Jus replied. He looked her over and spotted the recorder in her left hand. Wondering what exactly was on the recorder, he frowned but decided not to push. "I could also ask you what you're doing here, but I know you won't tell me. I can guess though. Mr White sent you here to cover the Air Force award ceremony; which, by the way, the press is _not_ invited to. Good luck with that." He turned away and began to walk back indoors to where the afternoon drinks and snacks were being served. Before he got very far, he stopped and turned back to face Lois. "I'll tell your father you're here though. General Lane'll be interested to know you want to use him to get inside."

Lois felt her jaw slacken. "You know who my father is?" She stopped and considered her question before she amended: " _How_ do you know my father?"

"I work with the Air Force, Ms. Lane," Jus returned. "Good day."

"Out of Cheyenne Mountain?" Lois asked on the off chance that Jus actually did.

Jus stopped and asked, "What of it?"

"Do you know what they're actually using that base for?"

He turned around and walked back toward her. "That is a matter of national security, of which _you_ do not have clearance."

The reporter looked gleeful as she took his reply as confirmation. "I take that as confirmation. Have you actually seen the star… warp in action?"

"Excuse me?" the linguist retorted. "I am a civilian contracted with the Air Force. What happens within Cheyenne Mountain is above my pay grade. I suggest you drop whatever you're doing and focus on what it is you truly want to know about: that superman/Kal El person you were asking me about the last time we met."

Lois looked affronted at that. She was sure that Jus worked out of Cheyenne Mountain, but wasn't really sure what his job title was. And she wasn't used to anyone stonewalling her. Or seeing through her so completely. No one really had stood up to her since her mother had passed back in 1991. Jus took her distraction as a chance to leave before she could ask him further questions. But at his dismissal, Lois found herself more intrigued by the man she was sure had been the gangly nobody kid of the Kents.

 **SGC SGC SGC**

Jus took in a deep breath and looked around the hall filled with Air Force personal. He felt a little out of place being the only person in attendance not wearing a dress uniform. Cassandra had said he looked handsome wearing a tuxedo, but that still didn't stop him from squirming at his collar.

He spotted General Hammond talking to several of the other officers. Should he go over and speak to the man, or approach Colonel O'Neill? Looking around the hall again, he spotted the colonel near the edge of the hall, speaking to (oh help) General Lane. That clinched it. Hammond it was. Striding purposely through the mass of navy uniforms, Jus made his way to where Hammond was.

"Excuse me sir," Jus interrupted.

The other officers that were listening to one of Hammond's tales were a little put out at the civilian interrupting their conversation. "How did you get in here?" the lieutenant general in the group asked. "This is a military award function."

Jus narrowed his eyes at the second Air Force General before he gave the man a respectful nod. "I am aware of that, sir. I was invited." Turning to Hammond, the young man continued, "General Hammond, I was wondering if I could go to print?"

"You're a reporter?"

"He's a civilian linguist working under my command in Colorado Springs," Hammond shot back. "He also happens to have done some research for me. If you would kindly excuse us." Hammond gave the officers a curt nod and led Jus to one side of the hall. "How bad?"

"She's a pit bull, sir. Once she's caught the barest scent of a story, she'll fight tooth and nail for it until she's dug up everything."

"Will she print?"

"If we handle this right, no. But I'm going to need your approval."

"The story you've been working on?"

Jus briefly nodded. He'd been working on a 'new' cover story that was closer to the facts – that the 'stargate' programme was named in honour of the work the Air Force was doing with refugees like Kal El and protecting the planet from hostile aliens – because, really, who would believe the story they currently had: something about deep space telemetry? And it was far more believable if the cover story was closer to the truth.

Hammond returned Jus' brief nod. "Do it."


End file.
